Hebrew Word Study – Portal – Patach – פֶּ֖תַח Pei Taw Cheth 

“Genesis 4:5-7: But unto Cain and his offering he had no respect, and Cain was very wroth and his countenance fell. And the Lord said unto Cain, “Why are thou wroth and why has thy countenance fallen?   If thou doest well shall thou not be accepted? And if thou doest not well, sin lieth at the door.”

I remember as a child in Sunday School watching my Sunday School teacher tell the story of Cain and Abel using the flannel graph.  Abel kept falling off the board (guess he had more graph than flannel) leaving only Cain on the board kneeling down with his fruits and vegetables clutched to his hands and looking up to heaven with a forlorn look.   Maybe it was Abel’s continued departure from the flannelgraph board leaving a lonely Cain with a sad face looking up to God that made a lasting impression on me, as I could not help but feel sorry for the old boy.  Of course I could never condone his actions in wasting his brother, however, I could not help but think that if God could have cut Cain a little slack and accepted his offering, which was given in good faith, the story could have been quite different.  But, no, God had to play it by the book and only an animal sacrifice would do.  But come on, this animal sacrifice was not really made law until the time of Moses.  Surly God could have given the poor guy a break.

Years later after studying Hebrew I began to realize that God having no respect for Cain’s offering really had the idea of conveying no power, and insight into this offering.  For one thing the ground had been cursed, So Cain was offering something that was cursed.   The second thing is God telling Cain that if he does well he will be accepted. God was really playing hardball at this time.  Without the law, or a Bible, how was one to know if he was doing well.  The Hebrew word for doing well is tov. This word was used quite a bit at creation.  After God created something, He then saw that it was tov or good.  As explained in earlier studies, this word means to be in harmony with God.  Cain offered something that was cursed to God and was not in harmony with Him.  Note that God warns that if you don’t do what is in harmony with God, sin lies at the door.  The word sin here is chatak’ which means unintentional mistakes or sins.  Apparently, the act of offering fruits and vegetables may not necessarily have been a sin, but at most it was an unintentional mistake, yet it was still not in harmony with God.  Perhaps Cain killing his brother was more manslaughter than murder, more unintentional. It is possible he did not even understand physical death.  Well, that’s another issue. What I am pondering is this idea that if you do not do what is in harmony with God,  unintentional sin is lying at the door.  I don’t believe that this is as metaphoric as we think.   

The word in the Hebrew for door has the preposition Lamed before it which could be rendered as to, for or unto with the definite article the.  This is a definite, specific door.  Not only that the word used here comes from a Semitic root word patach which is often rendered as a portal.  This is more than just a doorway to another room, it is an entrance to something entirely different.  .   We never seem to stop to ask why Cain and Abel were offering their sacrifices to God.  The Bible is not clear, but I think the answer is buried in the Hebrew.  They were seeking to open a portal to the presence of God.

Today we are continually seeking the presence of God, but we need a suitable sacrifice to open that portal.  That suitable sacrifice was the Lord Jesus Christ and it is through Him that the portal to the presence of God can be opened. 

Note: This is the topic for our Torah Study this week, plan to join us this Saturday at 9:00 AM CST for a deeper study into this matter. The class will be recorded and posted on our All Access site for those who are unable to attend.  You may join us at www.hebrewwordstudy.com 

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